Vegan Lemon Tahini Cookies in 20 minutes flat (Gluten Free)

I pulled the tray of glowing Beyoncé hued cookies from the oven and set them carefully on the counter to cool. Each crackled cookie shimmered with a sprinkling of pale golden sesame seeds and saturated the air with a sweet tahini breeze. The wait was interminable. Finally I hefted a caramel toned cookie to my lips and took a bite. Crumbley, sweet, slightly metallic, a fresh citrus tang, with bursts of sesame seeds. Halva, it tastes like lemon halva.

I dipped the second half in sweet cold vanilla soy milk, and moaned.

These are the cookies I would nibble with dark Turkish coffee. These are the cookies I would munch at midnight. These are the cookies I would serve to the queen of Denmark with a pot of Earl Grey tea.

My girl Livy has taken to eating them with a smashed pitted Medjool date sandwiched between two cookies. She says it tastes like a caramel Halva sandwich. Who doesn’t want to eat one of those?!

“One day beneath the lemon tree, my love and I did lie A girl so sweet that when she smiled, the stars rose in the sky We passed that summer lost in love, beneath the lemon tree The music of her laughter hid my father’s words from me”

-Peter, Paul and Mary

“sun-drenched Sicilian lemons squeezed of their juice and mingled with juniper from the frozen north. Saffron threads and gold leaf from the Indies waited to be turned into something magical. And contained deep within all of this was a smile that flooded him with warmth, a pair of blue eyes, and the scent of chocolate…”

– Laura Madeleine, The Confectioner’s Tale

“Tahini, Ta-hee-ni, What is this Tahini they keep mentioning“, says my mother in law flipping through the Savour magazine brought in my carry on.

“Umm it is Tahina (pronounced tchina), the stuff you put on everything” I say

“Aaaah” Big smile

Not all tahini is equally good. Buy from a Middle Eastern store. I find the more expensive the tahini the less authentic. I have bought before in Whole Foods and been disappointed. If you can’t find any near you this brand of tahini is good.

Now add enough garbanzo bean (chickpea) flour to form a fairly firm cookie dough. If my tahini is runny I add the whole 1/3 in increments until my dough is nice and pliable, similar to the texture of peanut butter cookie dough.

Scoop out a one tbsp measure of dough, roll it into a ball between your palms. Then press them to a 1/2 inch disk on the parchment. Continue until you have used up all of the dough leaving a 2 inch space around each cookie.

Bake for 14 to 15 minutes (switching the pans halfway through) until your cookies are golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool ten minutes before eating.